In a wireless communications system there is typically a fixed amount of air link resources available for utilization by wireless communications devices for combined control signaling and traffic signaling. In a wireless communications system lacking centralized control, e.g., an ad hoc peer to peer network, the scheduling of traffic air link resources is a challenging task.
A first device in a peer to peer network may desire to broadcast data to a plurality of other devices in the network, e.g., an open ended set of devices, which may happen to be in its local vicinity at the time. Similarly, a second device in the peer to peer network may also desire to broadcast data to a plurality of other devices in the network which may happen to be in its local vicinity. Using a broadcast signaling approach can, at times, be more efficient than having to schedule and transmit the same unicast data signals to multiple devices over multiple peer to peer connections. However, if both the first and second device were to broadcast at the same time using the same air link resource in a peer to peer network, recovery of the broadcast signal information by possible receiver devices may be unacceptable depending upon device locations, transmission power levels, channel conditions, receiver capabilities, etc. Based on the above discussion, there is a need for methods and apparatus which support broadcast data signaling in a peer to peer network and provide for interference management.